Work Based Learning role description:

The Canine Behaviour Consultant

 

The Canine Behaviour Consultant is an experienced Canine Behaviour Practitioner with many years behind them and is at a point in their career where they generally only consult on cases rather than working directly with the dog; as such the face to face practitioner-client skills are no longer key.  

 

The Canine Behaviour Consultant will have worked extensively as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner prior to taking on a Consultant’s role.  They will generally have at least one assistant / associate Canine Behaviour Practitioner working with them to carry out the remedial work with the dog.

 

The consultant’s role, however, may encompass areas beyond the consultation room, for example working with the government on various canine issues, giving lectures, providing consultatory advice or working within the education sector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overview of minimum skills and experience required:

The Canine Behaviour Consultant will have vast experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner and Professional Dog Trainer. As such the minimum skills and experience required apply.

The Work Based Learning Path to being a Canine Behaviour Consultant    

The only path to becoming a competent Canine Behaviour Consultant is through vast experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner.

 

Ancillary Work Based Learning Skills

As well as having extensive experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner and Professional Dog Trainer, the candidate may also have a plethora of other dog training skills, attended many courses and achieved many awards on a personal basis with their own dogs.

 

They may have qualifications outside of the Dog Behaviour and Training arena that contribute to their competence, confidence and skill as a Canine Behaviour Consultant and, under the Work Based Learning ethos, these should be acknowledged and recognised as achievements to date within the profession.

 

Accomplishments and Qualifications

Training course providers

Cambridge Institute for Dog Behaviour & Training

Animal Care College

Guide dog training

National Association of Security Dog Users

Home Office police dog training

The British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers

Other courses are also available

Personal (Work Based) Achievements

KC Competition obedience

      KC Beginner

      KC Novice

      KC A  B  C  comp-C

KC Agility

KC Working Trials

KC UD / UDX CD / CDX  WD / WDX

KC Field Trials

KC Bloodhound Trials

KC Herding Tests

Search & Rescue Cert

KC Accredited Instructor

 

 

The Kennel Club (KC) standards are some of the best in the world and to compete and win is an acknowledgement comparable with other high standards of training knowledge as in the horse world and international competitive events.

 

Reflective Learning

As a Canine Behaviour Consultant we are constantly evaluating what we are doing when we are doing it.  We start training an exercise and modify what we are doing depending upon the response we get from the dog we are working with.  Sometimes we change our position, the dog’s position, the motivating force (us, toy, food etc.,) or the equipment we use.  As a consultant we just class that as part of our job, however, in the work based learning arena it’s called being a “reflective practitioner”.

 

It is imperative that Canine Behaviour Consultants realise that they are reflecting back; not only with the dog they have in front of them but of past cases and dogs they’ve worked with.  A Consultant cannot progress without this aspect of experiential learning, it would be impossible as no two dogs are the same and no two will react in the same manner.

 

Although we do it automatically, the importance of reflection in learning at work and awareness of the process, needs to be acknowledged for an individual to be able to carry out any kind of self-accreditation via the work based learning scheme.

 

Technical and textbook knowledge, though important, is insufficient to prepare individuals to be practising professionals.  Knowing how or “knowing-in-action” must also be recognised as important. Knowing-in-action is referred to tacit and intuitive, rather than explicit knowledge, learned through doing rather than in the classroom.  It is the kind of knowledge that underpins much everyday activity, whether at work or not.

 

Knowing-in-action is vital for Canine Behaviour Consultants, as, as we all know, ‘real’ world problems tend to be “messy” rather than well formed.  Problems with dogs tend to come along in rapid succession depending upon our reaction rather than nicely organised “first solve this problem, then solve that” as is often written in dog training books.  Also some problems may well be unique to that situation, in the sense that they do not fit theoretical categories and therefore do not lend themselves to the applications of rules from the profession’s theoretical knowledge base.

 

When something untoward does happen it is likely to reflect on what’s going on in the midst of the activity itself.   It is a consequence of this process that is known as “reflection-in-action” ie., thinking about what we’re doing while we’re doing it and changing the process as we go along.

 

To be able to put into practice these reflective skills, both during and after the action, is what makes you a truly reflective practitioner.

Donald Schon (1983, 1987)

 

Comparative Assessment elements:

In general an Animal Behaviour Degree will average 1800 hrs study time on wild animals and some domestic species.  Dog specific theory is generally taught at less than 5% of the entire degree and rarely by a dog expert but by a teacher who has no practical experience.  Animal behaviour degrees are not an expertise level in dog behaviour, training, theory or otherwise.

 

All vocational learning in canine work based roles should be taught by highly skilled people with extensive hands-on experience.  Degrees obtained, therefore, provide targeted theory learning in canine behaviour and training as well as extensive hands-on work to prepare the student for their chosen vocation.

© petBC UK MMX